Jeff Waters of ABC News Victoria interviewed me today regarding the potential impact on Ford sales of “badwill” and anxiety over servicing and parts availability created by the announced plant closures:

I told Jeff I expect there will be a significant drop in Ford sales, although I did note I think this would be somewhat of an over-reaction and unwarranted, as Ford has indicated it remains committed to the Australian market, even though it won’t produce cars here. I have no reason to doubt Ford’s commitment. As a high-income OECD country, and a G20 economy (i.e. one of the 20 biggest in the world), Australia will remain an important market for Ford in the future.

For the record, to avoid any confusion over me being labelled an industry consultant in the news story, I’ve never consulted to the car industry. I have experience in car industry policy, of course, through the time I spent as an officer in Treasury’s Industry Policy Unit, a unit which has always held the Treasury line against unjustifiable industry subsidies.